Full name/age/job title:

Jennifer Kitchen, 25, Freelance Theatre Education Practitioner.

Please give us an overview of your average day.

As for many of us, there is no real average day! In the thick of the school term I might be dashing from projects at different schools, workshops at Shakespeare’s Globe and local youth theatres, fitting in planning and evaluation during the evenings. Out of term time I look for training to develop my skills and new opportunities to develop and deliver work.

What is the most common misconception about your job?

That I am an actor. There are many excellent practitioners that have come from a performance background, and continue to act alongside this work – but using the skills and techniques of theatre in educational settings has always been my passion, and I have been lucky enough to go straight from my Masters in Drama and Theatre Education to my current career in London.

What is the hardest thing about your role?

No matter how much experience you gain, every time you meet a new group of young people there will be different issues and factors involved. Every project or workshop is a new adventure and that means you can never run on automatic – thrilling, but exhausting stuff.

When did you decide what you wanted to do with your life and how did you set out to achieve it?

In the third year of my Drama BA there was the opportunity to undertake an independent project of your own choosing – I realised what I was really interested in what working with young people, and unpicking what makes the quality theatre education. So I set up a weekly drama club at a local primary school and based my dissertation research around this. From there I found the amazing MA course at the University of Warwick and during the end of that year applied for every relevant job I could find and was lucky enough to be taken on as Practitioner in Residence with Shakespeare’s Globe.

What can you do to get a head start?

Courses like the MA in Drama and Theatre Education at Warwick and Central’s MA in Applied Theatre can be an amazing and thorough springboard into working in theatre in education. But this definitely isn’t an area where you need a formal qualification to get started: volunteering and internships are the best way to gain experience and get ahead. I started volunteering with youth theatres during my gap year, and even now I volunteer with Peckham Shed inclusive youth theatre once a week.

If you’re committed, don’t be afraid to let everyone and anyone know it through constant networking. I have a blog, twitter and use LinkedIn, which all help, but nothing replaces face to face networking.

Could you describe the creative element to your job?

I’m lucky that nearly every day has the opportunity to be creative. Depending on the project I can be directing children; exploring themes and ideas through different games and activities; finding ways for children to create art, writing and other responses to theatre. But outside this there’s the lateral thinking of seeing opportunities for new projects, and being creative in marketing and getting funding.

What’s the one thing you wish you had known at the start of your career that you know now?

Until I reached university and met my wonderful tutor and mentor Annie Eddington – who works with Freshwater Theatre in Education as well as lecturing at the University of Essex – I didn’t really have any idea jobs like hers (and now mine) existed. There’s so much being done to promote creativity in our schools and in higher education, but I think much more could be done to show young people, as well as their schools and carers, the vast variety of career opportunities that can build on this. I wish I had been more aware of this starting out.

Which organisations/websites/resources do you think would be useful for people entering your industry?

IdeasTap (of course!) is a great place for hearing about new jobs, opportunities and just being inspired by all the great work out there. Creative-choices.co.uk is a great website with a wealth of practical advice on developing a creative career. Other than that I would say just keep looking for organisations that interest you: follow them online and go to as much theatre and as many training and workshop events as you can. With the recession it’s easy to get discouraged, but there’s still a lot of time being given to quality, passionate theatre in education work. 

Are you a teacher? Visit our education microsite.

Would you like to be featured in Job of the Week? If you work in the creative industries and would love to share your advice, expertise and experience with IdeasTap members, drop us a line at ideasmag@ideastap.com.